The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to cooling an object and, more specifically, to cooling an object using a thermoacoustic driven heat sink.
Use of high performance microprocessors has become more common in commercial electronics, such as computers. Such microprocessors may require high thermal dissipation due to significant heat energy generation. At least some known microprocessors are capable of dissipating approximately 100 Watts per square centimeter (W/cm2). At least some known commercial electronics support such dissipation requirements using fan driven forced air heat sink cooling. However, fan driven cooling often has a relatively short mean time between failure value (MTBF), such as approximately three years. Moreover, fan driven cooling has been known to increase particle contamination of circuit board assemblies used with such microprocessors.
At least some knows industrial electronics have been unable to take advantage of developments in high performance microprocessor technology due to industrial reliability requirements that are more stringent than commercial electronics. For example, at least some known industrial electronics require MTBF values of at least twenty years. Moreover, industrial operating environment limitations may be different from those that apply to commercial electronics. For example, at least some known industrial electronics require ambient air to be less than approximately 60° C. As such, there are few options that may be used to cool high performance microprocessors in industrial electronics.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a means to cool an object, such as a high performance microprocessor, in which there are no moving parts, to facilitate a higher reliability.